Heartstarter

Sometimes it is good just to wake up, pull on the shoes, and see what you can do in half an hour.

I set out this morning to do not a lot more than lay down a 5K. I have been hurting on and off for the last few weeks and while I know I have the Saintelyon coming up in two weeks, I haven’t been able to run a lot and work has made me a lot more tired that I would like these last couple of weeks. I could push it out a little further, I guess, but I’m looking for a confidence boost, a run I can get out, complete, and say ‘I did it’.

And so it was a 5K loop this morning.

I started out heading straight across the Saone from the Place des Jacobins and into the Old City. Not a lot of people about as it was still before 8am and the temperature was still below 3°C, but there was the odd person grabbing a baguette, the odd nightclub door opening and spilling people out into the cobbled streets, and the odd old lady on her way to church, too. I followed the streets down to Saint George, turned across the river again at Perrache, and then passed over the square, the bridge, and the Rhone to drop down onto the berges.

Along the Rhone I kept up a reasonable pace. The first kilometer through the Old City had been a touch over 5:00 pace but I was aiming to keep things under 5:00 and even around 4:45 as I moved upriver and towards the bridge I would take to drop me back onto the Presque Isle. I shuffled up the ramp, crossed over to Cordeliers, and then pushed past the Hard Rock Cafe towards the Place de la Republique. The Garmin tipped over the 5K mark just before I arrived but I kept going until the street gave way to the place before I clicked stop.

I was done.

There’s another busy week of work on the ay but I hope to be able to get out a couple of times. Tomorrow will be tricky with a trip up to Paris to manage and some after-school activities for Jamie, but I might be luckier later in the week. Here’s hoping…

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